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iCloud tabs not syncing
- Thread starter Morac
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The phantom open tabs issue for me occurred on my new 5th gen 12.9 iPad Pro which I got when it was first released. When setting it up about 20 open tabs appeared in Safari ostensibly from my iPhone. The tabs were all from last year and had been closed back then but continue to still appear today. I've read many of the posts here and this seems to be a persistent iOS 14 issue that only affects my iPad. I can manually delete each one by left swiping but they all reappear once the iPad is restarted. I’ve had similar issues in the past with functions that are iCloud related and realize that nothing is ever truly deleted from iCloud and could reappear at any time.
I'm not going to sign out of iCloud, I’ve done that several times in the past for serious issues and it's a very tedious process to set all that back up and then occasionally wind up with other issues as a result. This is an annoyance, not a serious issue. Changing the date and time also seems fraught with potential problems and not worth doing. Other than those steps has anyone found a simple way to, at least temporarily, clear these phantom tabs? Or has anyone who is running the iOS 15 betas seen this resolved? Again such iCloud issues are not uncommon, I’ve had messages, emails, reminders, notifications, etc. from ages ago reappear occasionally when all had been "deleted" at the time so this isn't surprising but if there is a simple way to eliminate them for now I would like to do so. At least when I manually clear them they don’t come back until I restart the iPad.
I'm not going to sign out of iCloud, I’ve done that several times in the past for serious issues and it's a very tedious process to set all that back up and then occasionally wind up with other issues as a result. This is an annoyance, not a serious issue. Changing the date and time also seems fraught with potential problems and not worth doing. Other than those steps has anyone found a simple way to, at least temporarily, clear these phantom tabs? Or has anyone who is running the iOS 15 betas seen this resolved? Again such iCloud issues are not uncommon, I’ve had messages, emails, reminders, notifications, etc. from ages ago reappear occasionally when all had been "deleted" at the time so this isn't surprising but if there is a simple way to eliminate them for now I would like to do so. At least when I manually clear them they don’t come back until I restart the iPad.
I have an iPhone 12 Pro on the latest iOS 15, and it's been showing an open iCloud Tab from my M1 MBP on macOS 11.5 up until the recent 11.5 RC2 that was released, which may have fixed the issue?
I also have an iPad Pro 11inch on iPadOS 14.6 that's NOT been showing this same erroneous macOS Safari iCloud Tab. This is the second time on Big Sur and iOS/iPadOS 14.x that this has happened to me, and what finally "fixed" this for me was an install of Big Sur over itself, which I'm planning on doing again once 11.5 is official and I can make a USB installer. When I reinstalled macOS over itself last time, and then opened Safari once that finished, boom. All of my Safari tabs were there like it had my session stored some how. I had just short of 30 (!) tabs and I was able to close them from both my iPad and iPhone at that time, like normal behavior.
One thing that seemed to fix the issue for one, though, hasn't for others. That's what's made this so difficult to figure out.
::EDIT::
My iPhone is back to showing a phantom macOS iCloud tab again.
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Are you using their standard resolvers 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1, or their "for Families" one that includes anti-malware DNS blocking?
Just wondering if they are inadvertently blocking the domain(s) for iCloud tab sync, assuming that it isn't all running behind the same set of DNS records as the rest of iCloud sync.
I tried both and had the same issue. I was wondering if they had some redirect mitigation’s or something that caused it. Quad9 worked and so did using unbound at home.
Interesting. The only other thing I can think to check that's specific to DNS -- if I knew what DNS names it uses to connect to iCloud tab sync -- is if the zones are DNSSEC-signed.
There was an issue with cdc.gov that went on for months earlier this year where there were several issues with their DNSSEC configuration that caused DNSSEC-validating resolvers like 1.1.1.1 to fail to return answers from them.
I don't think it is DNSSEC because I had the same issue with both Pi-Hole and with dnsmasq going to Cloudflare and neither one of them had DNSSEC enabled. The only thing I can think of is something on Cloudflare's backend that kills the DNS Query or something.
I figured out I can reliably reproduce this by switching the DNS providers on my home network back and forth. Switch to Cloudflare and it instantly stops and go back to Quad9 and everything comes right back.
Well, Cloudflare will validate DNSSEC by default on your behalf. So, if you use Cloudflare's resolvers you'll still get the benefit/protection of DNSSEC for queries you resolve through them even if you don't do your own DNSSEC validation. In fact, it's recommended if you use DNS over TLS/HTTPS with Cloudflare that you don't do DNSSEC validation on your own because it's redundant and will slow down resolution time back to your clients.
If you do ordinary plaintext udp/53 lookups against Cloudflare, you may still want to do your own DNSSEC validation if you're concerned about MITM tampering with the query answers being sent back to you.
That being said, I just checked Quad9 and they do DNSSEC validation on 9.9.9.9. They have an "unsecured" resolver that does not. But if you are using 9.9.9.9 and having success, it is likely not DNSSEC causing the issue.
The issues with iCloud tabs not syncing described by more than 1,000 posts here has -- in the vast, vast majority of the cases -- nothing to do with proxies or VPNs. It's a server-side iCloud issue that Apple has been trying to nail down, on again and off again, for the past 8 or 9 months. With the new tab group syncing feature in the next round of releases, Apple is hopefully getting its act together. After many months of my tabs not syncing, they began to work perfectly a month ago and still are working. I did nothing to fix the feature.
For those of you who are having stuck tabs *showing up on your Mac* (that it, phantom tabs from other devices cannot be closed out on your Mac), there is a way to fix this by deleting the CloudTabs.* files in the Safari directory and restarting Safari on the Mac (which will recreate the deleted files, with accurate iCloud tabs showing).
I've had this issue for many, many months and I'm happy to report that today, after my iPhone has been updated to 14,7 and my macOS to 11.5, the iCloud tabs function works perfectly as I remember before the issue. It is instant, shows what's currently opened on the other device. I'm happy, hopefully it stays this way.
it's in ~/Library/Safari/. You have to set your Mac permissions to access system files, and I do recommend you have at least passing familiarity with basic unix commands (cd, rm, ls, etc). You just want to use your terminal app, go that directory, and rm CloudTabs.* in that directory when safari is closed, then when you reopen it, the files will be re-created ... accurately this time.
My phantom issue is just between my iPhone and my iPad Pro. Closed tabs from the phone from some time last year, most I believe were open around September - October but closed after viewing them. They did not appear on my previous iPad Pro but when I got this new 5th gen version they appeared after setting it up. Years ago there used to be a manual sync process that could be engaged on specific devices. But now there seems to be no way to correct erroneous info in iCloud other than hoping it settles out at some point.
I have the problem on iOS there is a tab from macOS which is called "remote UI". This tab always shows up as soon as I started Safari on my MacBook. When I try to close this tab on iOS then its popping up again. Does anyone has any idea?
My problem is that my iPhone and my iPad see each other’s tabs. My iMac can see tabs on my iPhone and iPad. None of my devices can see my iMac’s tabs.
everything is updated to the latest iOS and Mac OS
Any suggestions?
everything is updated to the latest iOS and Mac OS
Any suggestions?
Another way to delete the CloudTabs.* files -- including on iOS/iPadOS -- is to sign out and then back into iCloud. I know some people resist doing this for various reasons, but if your phantom tabs are showing up on an iOS device, this is your best bet. For Macs, you might want to try to suggestion I mentioned above.
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😃
My condolences to those who can't update their devices in sync in order to have a fix that should've become reality during the support cycle of the OS that was first hit (iOS 12 and iOS 13). In a typical fashion, Apple drops support and then «fixes» their crap.
I tried this... Unfortunately it seemed to populate about 20 even older iCloud tabs that were not present before. Even after closing these older tabs they returned so this didn't work for me. Hopefully it works for someone else though!
Update. This mostly resolved my issue but strangely my iPhone tabs weren't syncing as intended on my imac.
I resolved the issue by signing out of iCloud on my iPhone and my iMac, removing my iMac from my account, signing into iCloud on my iPhone, then signing into iCloud on my iMac. After I signed into my iMac, I was notified on my iPhone to resolve an issue with iCloud. It turned out that I then had to enter my iMac password on my iPhone, which I suspect enabled bidirectional updating of my iCloud tabs. Now, whenever Safari on my iPhone is put in the background, the tabs for my iPhone update on my iMac, which I think is as intended.
iPhone 12 Pro with iOS 14.7.1, iMac 13,1 (21.5 inch, Late 2012) with macOS 10.15.7
I resolved the issue by signing out of iCloud on my iPhone and my iMac, removing my iMac from my account, signing into iCloud on my iPhone, then signing into iCloud on my iMac. After I signed into my iMac, I was notified on my iPhone to resolve an issue with iCloud. It turned out that I then had to enter my iMac password on my iPhone, which I suspect enabled bidirectional updating of my iCloud tabs. Now, whenever Safari on my iPhone is put in the background, the tabs for my iPhone update on my iMac, which I think is as intended.
iPhone 12 Pro with iOS 14.7.1, iMac 13,1 (21.5 inch, Late 2012) with macOS 10.15.7
FYI, you need to enter the password for other devices to decrypt their data if the data is protected with end to end encryption.
Why Apple Asks for Your Passcode or Password with a New Login (and Why It’s Safe) - TidBITS
Logging into a new Apple device may result in a prompt that asks you for the passcode or password of another one of your devices. Glenn Fleishman explains why this happens and why it’s a good idea.
iCloud Tabs (as of iOS 13) is end to end encrypted, so you are correct.
iCloud data security overview - Apple Support
iCloud uses strong security methods, employs strict policies to protect your information, and leads the industry in using privacy-preserving security technologies like end-to-end encryption for your data.
Of note, is you sign out of iCloud on all your devices, the end to end encryption data is deleted. I found that out when I lost all my saved passwords upon doing so. Though it also deleted a stuck password I could never get rid of.